Glossary
Sidecar file
A sidecar is a companion file holding metadata for an image that is left otherwise untouched.
Updated
Also written: XMP sidecar.
Raw workflows commonly avoid writing into the original file at all. Edits, ratings and metadata go into a small XMP file beside it, sharing the image's name with a different extension, and the raw file is never modified.
This has a consequence people miss when sharing. Cleaning the image does nothing to a sidecar, and a sidecar copied along with the image carries everything that was supposedly removed — including coordinates.
The reverse case matters too: sharing an image without its sidecar discards the edits and the copyright information stored there, because none of it was ever in the image file.
Related terms
- XMP — XMP is an extensible, XML-based metadata format that can carry arbitrary fields, embedded in a file or kept alongside it as a sidecar.
- IPTC — IPTC is a metadata standard for editorial information — caption, creator, credit, copyright and keywords — rather than camera settings.
- Provenance — Provenance is the record of where an image came from and what has been done to it since.